Pearl Izumi Pure Run 2008 Series 3

Run like an animal. That's the Pearl Izumi war cry. And so I ran like an animal. A sloth. Long hands long legs and yet so slow:)

Okay today was the last run of the Pearl Izumi Pure Run Series. The first run which we missed was 10km, the 2nd was 20km and this last one 30km and all at different place.

Today run starts from Changi Beach Park and goes all the way to East Coast Park Carpark F2 and back. Like the previous run, there was only a small crowd of about 300 runners. The ladies started first followed by the guys 10 minutes later. There was a small number of sgrunners, Mr & Mrs IMD, Sleek, Yamsong, Fruitloops, Zco, Ayin, Eliza, Yankee, Fennel.....and a number from Safra. Michelle and Jun Hong decided to get crash since we had 2 extra ladies bibs. Unfortunately, Jun Hong is a guy. Luckily he managed to swap his bib with a lady who had an extra guy bib.

After last week horribly slow 27k, I had decided I was lucky if I can complete the 30k in 3hrs 30mins. I started slowly at around 7min pace and hit 3km around 22 mins where the first drink point was located. After that started to pick up a little speed but could see that I was like the last few runners. As I was still feeling good, decided to go slightly faster. Hit 5km in 31mins + and 10k just a few seconds of 1hr. So far so good. Was looking forward to the accerelate drink and banana at the 15k u-turn and decided to move even faster. Finally reached the uturn just after 1hr 30m to discover that contrary to what was emailed to us, there was no banana and no accelerate drink. Only plain water again!

Surprisingly, despite the hot weather I was still feeling rather good. Reached 20k at slightly after 2h. Met Eddie manning the traffic light and asked him 'Where is his banana?' before realising that it sounded......... At the next water station, they finally had a blue medicine tasting drink (presumbly the acclerate). The next water station had a yellow colour version which tasted slightly better and thereafter no more. Sigh... they should have served this at 15k and maybe 22k!

Anyway, still running and constantly shifting from fore foot to heel strike to relieve the pressure on the knee, I reckoned I was now looking at possibly finishing just around 3 hours instead of the 3:30 that I was thinking I could do. At the first park after Aviation Rd, saw somebody in blue up ahead and thought that could be M and decided to catch up with her. Unfortunately cock eye me..that turned out to be a guy:( Running alone and after the SAF terminal, saw another person in blue with a cap and from the way she was running, reckoned that must be M. She was about 500 m ahead and it took a lot of effort to catch up with her. Finally caught up with her just after carpark and ran back together with her to finish together. Time for me based on my watch was 3h 06m and that cheered me up no end! Hopefully I can maintain this momentum and do the same at the SCSM.

Newton Gravity

Key Power International came to Running Lab this evening with their Newton running shoes for trailing. Fortunately for me, they brought along only 1 pair of size 12 and I managed to get it first.

"It" is the Newton Gravity cushion trainer. Now I am rather surprised that Newton still has its shoes designed as cushioned or stability shoes. According to its website, Newton shoes are designed for forefoot running. Based on the literature I have read previously, if a person is running using forefoot, there is really no need for stability or cushioning shoes as the gait and impact point is different and there is no need to stabilise the foot etc

Anyway, back to the shoes. "Whether training or racing, Newton Active Membrane Technology™ provides greater shock absorption, greater energy return while promoting the natural and more efficient forefoot strike of barefoot running". With this in mind, I put it on and instantly felt the different. There was actually 4 piece of protruding foam known as actuator lug right in the middle of the shoes. This raised foam force the wearer to land on the forefoot first and these together with the hollow chamber is supposed to reduce the shock to the legs. So is it really true?First impression - although it comes in my fave colour, the color combination of orange and yellow was actually quite a turn off. Made it looked rather 'cartoon'. Another runner commented that it reminded her of the shoes in the '80s.

However, it was light - in fact very light. When running, there was a bounce to it - much better than my Spira. Cushioning was good and I felt that I could run much faster in it without much impact on the legs. Ran about 6km up and down Fort Canning at varying speed and the shoes felt very comfortable. It really absorb the impact well much better than my Nike Lunar.

As I have been adjusting to forefoot running for the past few months, I had no problem getting used to this shoe and I think I will be wiling to give it a longer tryout. But alas, the trial is only for tonight and I am too lazy to go for other trials. Now if it wasn't so ex!

GE Women 10K Video

GE Women 10k Run. All the actions. Including the top 5 finishers and members of SGRunners. See if you catch the bandit runners or any familiar faces.



The Making of the Group Photo. Damm jialat. Ladies.....

Great Eastern Women 10k

The Great Eastern Women 10K. This year was lucky enough to get an invitation from ESG, the event organiser so was able to go to the Hospitality Tent and get breakfast. Thanks guys. So while the ladies were sweating it out in the queue under the sun, we were having breakfast inside the Hospitality Tent together with the VIP and the race winners!. Hmm life is great!





M didn't do too well this time round coming back in a much slower time of 58:06 compared to her last few races. The race was won by a Kenyan (they seem to be popping up everywhere) and Singapore's favourite Vivian Tang was beaten to 7th place.

Met a few of the new sgrunners ladies. Don't know many of them. The regulars have mostly disappeared or are not supporting this race. Probably too ex which is a waste as I thought this is one of the most well organised race.

Photos and videos coming up soon.. just so soon as I can find time to do some tweaking!

Okay all photos finally up here